Small money saving habits...petty even

[Buddy80]

Hi,

I was just thinking of some of the small habits i've gotten into from habit and though i'd share...

I know some of them have probably been mentioned before

Always break a dishwasher tab in half
Water down fabric conditioner to get 2 bottles instead of 1
Freeze unwanted bananas for cakes
Chop up apple cores for the birds
Save pumkin seeds for planting
Save envelopes for seeds from old calendars
Use old envelopes for shopping lists if not reused
This one is stingy [embarrassed]...intead of buying a calendar, I just print off monthly from on-line planner. It gets amended anyhow and easier just to put on pinboard
Save old flyers to make paper chains.
Add handful of porridge oats to make crumble go further

oh and regularly check in/amongst your dcs toys. i found £4 in my son's push along block trolley today whilst tidying. might be a better idea not to let them near your purse in the first place though

When I cut ds' hair for the first time after 11 months (July through to the beginning of June ), I hacked at cut it roughly first with scissors just to get the worst of the length out of it, before going over it with a No 6 or 8.

What he hadn't known was that he was going to be given a role in the P7 Leavers' Assembly the following week as a zombie, even though he was only P6, purely because of his longer hair. As it was, one of the P6 girls, who was actually leaving, got the part, which was probably more appropriate.

Re washing - I never use fabric conditioner. And it should NEVER be used on towels - it affects the absorbancy of them.

My own tip is - when you wash a batch of towels dont use washing powder,but wash on a hot wash. This clears out any residue, and that will wash the towels perfectly well - which don't really get 'dirty' as such anyway.

I'm llucky with my dses, they all have really curly hair, so it doesn't really matter how I hack it clipper it, it always looks the same!

When the stick deodorant has worn down to the plastic and won't glide over the skin any more. I dig out the last bits with my nails and spread it on - extends its life for nearly a week! Mostly because I am at the total swiz of selling a 100ml product of which only 75ml is easily usable.

I am marking my place because I need this thread. I don't have any particularly stunning tips but I am frantically making notes of all yours

Mulledwine -I have a butter knife on my dressing table (dunno why) but it is ideal for this - just a scraping of solid anti-p and smear it under your armpits...

Wow, I am not alone! I have masses of tubs of varying sizes in the cupboard fr leftovers, and there is really very little that cannot be frozen. I even freeze wine now as I can only have a little bit at a time (bf), and you can scoop it out like sorbet and cook with it from frozen. And weaning means it is even worth saving the odd spoonful scraped off DH's plate after dinner - it's a baby portion! 10 tiny tubs for a pound from the pound shop.

Excess tomatoes - cut in half, dust with garlic powder if you have any (got a massive bag from the asian supermarket) and dry on the radiators, in the airing cupboard, on window sills.... Any spare space. They dry very quickly, especially cherry toms, and you can use them in bread, stews, or as a snack. They have so much more flavour than shop-bought ones.

Cash and carry for toilet paper, kitchen roll and anything else that doesn't go off. Last time we got a 10kg bag of cat food, decanted some into a tub to use and resealed the bag with a bin bag. It lasted us for months.

I sell on things we don't need any more on ebay, and leave the money in my papal account for birthdays and Christmas. Our local butcher is now taking paypal so we can even get our turkey this way!

I can't find the recipe for home made washing liquid - could someone link it please? Thank you

viking if you google 'laundry gloop' you should get loads of results and then just play about with quantities/ingredients til you find something you are happy with.

ok i've had a look at a few youtube tutorials and convinced myself i can do it. ds is not so convinced

I bought the smallest piece of root ginger I could find when i needed it for something I wanted to cook. The rest got chopped up finely and put into a jar of white whine vinegar. Much cheaper than buying Very Lazy Ginger!

or you could plant yr left over ginger root;keep in a warm sunny place and you get a pretty fern like plant for nothing!!

Dh has reminded me that he was once told after he started cutting his hair with the guard off by accident that the difference between a good cut and a bad cut is two weeks

in that particular case it was about 4 weeks

Banana skins can be used to polish shoes. I've tried it and they do a good job.

my dad says that too pretty bird. it's true for men and boys with short hair anyway

Apols if someone else has said this - I open top of juice cartons when "empty", there's always a good tablespoon left.

I bought a 10kg bag of basmati rice from Lidls months and months ago, still only used half of it. Very good quality too. Think it was about £10.99.

It is probably cheaper in an Asian shop but that would require a special trip which means petrol.

Polish shops! As in, run by Poles. Fabulous sausages, bacon ribs, jams etc for prices lower than Lidl. And VERY CHEAP vodka. my family now like sauerkraut. a giant jar is less than a pound.

Asian supermarkets for grains and spices.

I don't shave legs because my legs don't have any hair on them. Weird but true. Also only shave armpits in summer.

Buy bread flour from mill, 16 kilos for well under 20 quid; delivery is free. If you then make a sourdough starter yeast is free. So only cost is the flour, and salt, and energy.

I second the Polish shops, I've just discovered how cheap they are.

Having friends who are bargain hunters really helps, as we all tip each other off on sales and reductions. We all have the Boots 75% sale date in our diary every year as we stock up on birthday presents for the year.

My friend and I had a gift bag that went back and fourth for about 3 years, it eventually got recycled into something else.

ooh Happy when is the sale date? Please

If you open the top of juice cartons for that last dribble, wash them out, cut off the top (with the plastic bit) cut down an inch in each corner to make flaps, and fill with fruit etc. for freezing. Again one more use before recycling!

i do something that im allmost embarrised to share but fuck it i will.

every month with out fail i spend 1 week where i place exactly what i would recive if i were on income support into a very basic bank account and i have a sepperate handbag with a purse in it that only contains the debit card to that account all my other cards every single one gets locked in a safe along with any cash in my possesion.

i basicly deduct £25 for power £5 water £4 tv license £15 for phone/net/tv and a few other things and deduct those from the basic income support figures and do not transfer the deducted money across.

i base these figures soley on what a friend of mine who lives in a fairly normal 3 bed house pays shes restricted to prepay meters and other things that bump up costs for her.

obviously i already have these bills and they are paid but i deduct the amounts to make it so its not all disposable money if that makes sense.

the rules are, during that week that is the only money i will access unless its a work related emergency cost.

i am not allowed to stock up on anything food wise in the weeks before nor will i intentionally buy large items or have big shopping sprees to make having limited funds that week easyer

i can not borrow anything.

everything me or the children need during that week gets delt with from that money (unless its a proper disability related cost like a carers bill or that sort of thing).

it saves me lots of money and tends to stop me being extravigant in my daily life and place more value on how priviliged i am.

there is a fair bit more to it than just that ive always done it my grand dad made me many moons ago for lots of different reasons, he also threw in lots of curve balls like deducting for bank charges and bizare made up sanctions or would pretend clamp my car. i know its nothing at all like really being skint but it gives you a huge amount of respect for others and saves lots of money.

Booey This night light is good, although they seem to have put the price up, sure it was about £3.75 when I bought it .

I use leftover water from drinks or in the washing up bowl for the plants.

Have recently started freezing things like herbs, breadcrumbs (for stuffing) and lemon (for drinks) after reading it on here.

Bread pudding from leftover stale bread.

Spices and dried food from the market.

Just discovered sainsburys value fresh coffee - it's fine.

I'm lucky enough to have a brilliant and cheap green grocers nearby. Eg one pepper is 30p, whereas it's about 75p in the supermarket.

Make milkshake from berries and bananas on the turn.

I mix all the leftover tea, coffee and grounds, juices in cartons ,wine and milk in bottles etc. with some water to make very lovely food for my plants indoor and out; you don't need to buy expensive plant food at all. We have kept an amazing swiss cheese type plant alive and kicking for many years on just that.

Also slugs and snails HATE coffee grounds so I put them round my fave plants outside.